


𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐖𝐁𝐎𝐘'𝐒 𝐌𝐄𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐂 | Spike Spiegel x OC

by iamgolf



Category: Cowboy Bebop (Anime)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Crushes, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fights, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Jealousy, Late Night Conversations, Nude Photos, Rollerblades & Rollerskates, Roommates, Rough Sex, Shooting Guns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:39:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29787258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamgolf/pseuds/iamgolf
Summary: Spike is not pleased to hear that a new mechanic is joining the Bebop crew. He had balance before she joined and now she is going to ruin it all.Set two years before the show!
Relationships: Spike Spiegel/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 1





	1. 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐈 𝐌𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐒

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BOUNTY.

That was the life that Spike had occupied himself with. Bounty after bounty, and yet he still found himself broke by the time a new bounty appears. He was tired of these small fries, but every time he was close to catching something big, it would slip right through his fingers.

The card that held the money he received from this week's job twirled lightly in his thin fingers. The other hand was occupied with holding a lit cigarette. The whiff of smoke would enter his nostrils along with actual smoke entering his lungs. This was a much needed remedy after a long day.

As he walked through the empty hallway of the Bebop, he could hear a young female's laughing blending in with Jet's. He rolled his eyes with a mental groan thinking that Jet had invited some girl over for the night.

Oh well, at least he's getting some.

The laughter finally reached his ears as the door to the main room slid open. The cigarette in his mouth lifted as he pursed his lips looking out at the scene in front of him. Jet was leaned against a chair that stood across the bright yellow couch. His metal arm lifted against the chair and held his head up. His eyes glanced up at Spike making his lips curve into a lighter grin.

"There you are, Spike!" Jet's husk voice put all the attention on the slender man. "I was just telling our guest about you."

The so called "guest" whipped her head around and Spike finally got the full view of her. The top of her head was blanketed with curly strands of pale gold tied back into a low ponytail. Her eyes were as bright as a blue summer sky. Her skin was more tan than his was and her cheeks even had a small sunburn. Her face was littered in freckles and when she smiled at him, he saw that she had a small gap between her teeth. She wore big overalls with a strap hanging off her shoulder. A black tank top sat underneath her overalls along with some goggles tied around her neck.

She stuck her hand out as her eyes glimmered in excitement, "Hi!" He stopped for a moment and thought about the way her voice sounded. "I'm Val." Upon further realization, he noticed that her voice had a strong french twang to it. 

He raised an eyebrow and reluctantly took her hand, "Spike." He leaned his head over to make eye contact with Jet. Once their eyes met, he motioned towards the blonde.

"Oh!" Jet clapped his hands together and pushed himself up from his chair. "Spike, Val has offered, herself, to be our official mechanic."

With his eyebrow still raised high, he took his hand back from her, "Why?" He stopped and turned back to Val. "I mean, I'm not complaining or anything, but this is just out of the blue."

Jet opened his mouth to answer, but she already had one ready, "So that I can have a place to stay."

Spike was taken aback by her answer, "What? I'm sorry," He held his hand up and performed a fake laugh, "correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't we supposed to come to you?" His eyes panned over to Jet. "I wasn't informed we'd be getting a permanent mechanic."

He walked over to Spike and slapped his hand down on his shoulder, "I didn't need to ask you because she came in and she said she would do it for free!"

His friend's smile plastered all over his bearded face. Spike faked a smile and gently pushed his hand away, "I still would've liked to have been told about this, Jet."

Spike's eyes narrowed on Jet as he copied his fake smile, "Well, Spike, I shouldn't have to remind you who's ship this is."

Now their eyes were having a competition on who could perform a more nasty glare. Tension was obviously bubbling between them. Val jumped off the back of the couch and pushed the two men apart.

"I can leave if it's going to be a problem," Her big blue eyes shot a guilty look at Spike causing him to growl at her.

"You'll be just fine, Val," Jet pushed her behind him so he could whisper/yell at Spike. "Listen, she says she'll do all the work for free as long as we give her a bed and some food."

He looked back at the girl, who gave him a quick smile before he turned away again, "How do you know this isn't a scam?"

Jet turned to Val again who gave him the same smile. She wasn't even a foot away from them so she could hear everything that was going on, but pretended not to so they could have "privacy."

He turned back to Spike, "It could be yeah, but I don't want to risk it. You're too reckless, Spike and I'm tired of paying so much to repair your ship along with mine."

He glared at Jet and then pointed to the girl, "She is not touching my ship!"

"Hey listen! She gave me plenty of references and they all were praising her. I promise you your ship is in good hands."

"She could've made up those references!" His voice grew louder now.

Val stepped in between them with a smile, "You can fake references?"

Spike watched her for a moment not sure how to respond. Having a woman on their ship could easily put things out of balance. He'd have to deal with the constant whining and her complaining about boy problems. It would ruin the peaceful cycle he had just gotten into and he wasn't sure how to feel about it. But when he looked into Jet's eyes he knew that there wasn't much he could do in this situation.

He groaned lightly with an eyeroll, "Fine. She can stay." Her eyes lit up again behind his hand, but before she could celebrate he continued. "But, don't bother me, because if you do I'll kick you to the curb."

Val's warm hand wrapped around his wrist to pull it away from her face. Her smile lit up the room once more as her happiness grew more evident on her face, "Oh my gosh! Thank you so much!" Her eyes kept going back and forth between Jet and Spike then finally landed on Spike. "I promise I won't bother you at all. You won't even know that I'm here."

But even Spike knew that was a lie.


	2. 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐑𝐀𝐌𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Val forces Spike to play a little game with her.

SPIKE WAS RIGHT. VAL DID LIE.

It all started at eight in the morning. Spike had finally gone to sleep at a late hour after learning some more about her. He still didn't like the idea of her traveling with them. Her story seemed too fake. She was going to work for them for free? How is she going to get money? She better not be thinking that they'll buy everything for her.

Spike got about a good five hours of sleep last night. His dreams were shut off by the sound of a loud drill going into the side of his wall. He finally understood what was so bad about waking up on the wrong side of the bed.

When he went out to go get onto her, she couldn't even hear him over the music blasting in her ears. He probably stood there for at least ten minutes trying to get attention, but there she was, just drilling away.

Irritated, Spike moved to the main area of the ship to sleep on the couch. Once comfortable, he was out like a light. The loud drilling was suddenly just a soft buzz in his ear. It eased him to rest into a quick rest.

11:10

Spike had fallen into such a deep sleep, that when he was jolted awake again, he had to wipe the drool from his lip. Once it registered that Val once again was the one who woke him, he growled like a wild beast. Instead of the drill, this time she was now hammering away on some piece of metal.

He didn't waste a single second. He marched right towards the room she was working away in and slammed open the door with all his anger pushing into his hand. By now she should've gone deaf with how loud her music was.

There Val stood banging a large nail into the cracks of the metal wall. Her baggy overalls still remained on, but instead of a tank top, today she wore a simple white shirt. Her curly hair stuck out like a sore thumb on the top of her head. She had her tongue trapped in her teeth with a concentrated glare.

"Val!" Spike knew his throat was going to itch by the end of the day. "Val!" He groaned realizing she still couldn't hear him. "God dammit. . ." He moved closer to her and yanked the headphones off of her causing her to jump and turn a fearful gaze to him. They calmed down once they realized it was just Spike. "What are you doing?"

She tilted her head, "My job?"

"Okay, but do you have to be so loud?"

She brought the hammer over to her chest and started to twirl it around in her hand, "Oh was I being loud?" He nodded. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I hadn't realized because of my headphones. I'll try to be quieter, but if I'm still too loud feel free to take my headphones and listen to your own music."

Spike glanced down at her headphones that were still playing music, "I think I'll do that." He sighed and turned his attention back to her. "Where's Jet?"

Her finger tapped against her chin, "He said that he had something to do today, but he should be back soon."

Another sigh left him, "Alright. I'll be here if you need me."

3:04

Once Val's work had quieted down, Spike was able to stop listening to music and actually doing something else. He had tuned into today's episode of 'Big Shot' to see if there were any notable bounties to hunt.

Val was somewhere on the ship, but at least she wasn't making anymore noise. He would have to talk to Jet about his new alarm clock and how if it continues he won't be too happy.

He almost thought that she had left with how quiet she had gotten.

That was until he heard a loud gasp and light footsteps running through the hall. He turned his head just as she started ascending the stairs. Her hands were a bit dirty so he assumed she was probably busy cleaning when she had found the box that was in her hands.

"Spike!" Her french voice repeated his name multiple times until she reached the last step.

"Yeah?"

Val's lips spread into a wide smile and held the box up, "I didn't know you guys had games here!" He squinted his eyes and realized that she was holding up a raggedy box of chess. "Me and my dad used to play this game all the time! Do you wanna play?"

Spike wasn't one to be interested in games like chess. He didn't like logical games and found them boring, but he couldn't ignore the genuine happiness he saw in her eyes. He pursed his lips together and thought about how he had nothing else to do.

He pointed to the seat across from him, "Why not?"

He heard her happily giggle as she rushed to the seat he was pointing at, "I was never really good at this game so you might win."

"You seem a little upbeat about losing," A smirk ran across his lips as he leaned forward on the couch.

Val busied herself by pulling out the board and all the game pieces, "Eh, I'm just happy to play."

She placed each piece down like she had memorized the whole board. She gave him black and her white. Her eyes scanned the board for a second before she leaned back in her chair with the concentrated glare returning.

The two played for a few minutes. Neither one of them spoke. Spike wasn't really trying at the game, but somehow was still close to winning. He almost laughed at how hard she was trying but how bad she was playing. Did she really play all the time?

Getting bored of the quiet atmosphere he decided to dig into her. See if she could clear up his confusion, "Where are you from?"

He peered up at her, but she did not return the stare, "I used to live on Mars, but now I live here."

He raised an eyebrow while moving a playing piece, "So like were you rich and then lost all your money or. . ."

She shook her head, "My family was rich and gave me some money and told me to get a job."

That answers why she's working for free. She already has some money around.

"Wait, how old are you."

She smirked, "23, so yeah my parents kicked me out because they were tired of taking care of me."

"So did you not have a job before this?"

"Hm?" She finally looked up at him. "Oh! I did. It was another mechanic job, but they shut down and I just lounged around for about two years."

He placed his elbow on his knee and laid his face onto the palm of his hand. His smirk returned, "So you're pretty lazy, huh?"

Her smirk sooned matched his as her eyes went back to the game, "Not as much as you. Remind me what you did today?"

"Hey!" He pointed an accusing finger at her. "I was tired because you decided to start working at the buttcrack of dawn!"

"It was eight o'clock when I started working," She laughed. "Is that too early for you?"

The cocky tone in her voice showed that he was about to run into some joke that he was the butt of, "No. Eight is perfectly fine."

"Good! I'll start working right at that time," She smiled up at him. Just as soon as her sentence ended the door behind them shifted open. Spike turned around, taking his focus away from the game. Jet stepped out with bags of groceries in his arms. Her little voice chimed, "I win. Hi Jet."

Spike whipped his head back around to stare at each piece on the board. Her chess piece was standing tall with her winning move. The more he studied it the more he realized that she didn't cheat at all and she had perfectly opened him up to her trap.

He shot a glare at her as she got up to leave, "Wait, hey! You told me you didn't know how to play!"

Val placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, but her face screamed pure evil, "I lied."


	3. 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐀𝐋𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Val wants Spike to teach how to shoot a gun.

"PLEASE, SPIKE? THIS IS THE ONLY TIME I WILL ASK YOU FOR SOMETHING!"

The outside wind blew past the two young companions as one tried to get away from the other. Val was right on his tail as he whipped away any smudged dirt that was smeared along his face.

They had both gone out this morning. Val went out for supplies and Spike went out on a bounty. Small fry per usual, easy catch. But the guy was like a fox. He kept sneaking away from Spike's grasp. It took him all morning to finally catch the guy.

Surprisingly Val had witnessed the end of the fight and was now bugging him about how to shoot a gun.

"Can't this wait until tomorrow? I'm a little tired, Val," Spike mumbled rubbing the back of his neck. Laying down and relaxing sounds like a dream to him at the moment and he wanted to be floating around in that dream.

Her feet ran against the pavement until she was in front of him. She twirled around to be facing him while walking backwards, "But what if overnight someone attacks the ship and you and Jet die? I don't know how to protect myself."

He hated the way her eyes could so easily shift into baby doll eyes. Those piercing blue eyes stung something in him that made her impossible to refuse.

With his hands stowed away in his pockets, he sighed, "Fine, but you think too much."

She clasped her hands together and squealed happily, "Yes! Thank you!"

Living with Val wasn't all that bad. She was a ray of sunshine. He never saw her go a day without smiling as bright as she could. She always tried seeing positives in every negative. He almost didn't believe she was real.

She was also kind enough to delay her work schedule until everyone was awake. Some days she wouldn't even have any work to do, but that didn't stop her. He noticed that she always had to busy herself with something.

Some days she'd leave to go on a supply run and wouldn't be back for hours, yet the only thing she would get were bolts and nails. The same thing every time. She says she only takes so long because she has to find the 'perfect' set for the 'perfect' ship.

Jet had already taken a big liking to Val. He liked having conversations with her because she was an easy person to talk to. She rarely took over a conversation and either let the other person talk more or kept it at an equal pace.

When the two got back on the ship they started to prepare for the training session. Val pushed a crate out all on her own while Spike went to go find some empty bottles and extra bullets. He took off his jacket and untucked his shirt to get more relaxed. Val just tied up her hair.

He set the bottles out in a straight line against the crate before walking back to Val.

"Have you ever shot a gun before?" He was busy getting in position to show off a little.

"Only once, but I missed my target."

He furrowed his brows together with a confused smirk, "Were you trying to kill someone?"

She paused for a second before laughing, "No. My dad took me to a shooting range for my sixteenth birthday."

He began to hold his gun out to see if he was in the right position to shoot. He spread his feet apart and glared at his target. Seeing that he was in a good spot, he brought the gun back down.

"That's a fun way to spend your sweet sixteen," He chuckled.

She shrugged, "It wasn't my idea, it was my brother's. We're twins and I picked the previous year where to go."

"Oh Jesus, there's two of you," He quietly laughed to himself. Val's laugh was short and he could barely hear it. Deciding it was time to stop stalling, Spike held the gun up again. "Okay so just a little tip, try to keep your gun on safety𑁋"

"I know all the basics, just teach me how to get my aim right."

He turned to her and glared, "Hey, I am the teacher at the moment," he paused for an eye roll, "but fine."

For the rest of the day Spike showed Val how to shoot in all kinds of positions. She watched carefully and remained quiet while he went on and on about all these different stories of when he shot his gun. He thought for sure all of this would bore her and she would leave, but she listened and never seemed to get bored.

At the beginning of the lesson there were six bottles and now there were three. All left for her.

He turned to her and smiled, "Now it's your turn."

The sun had started to go down which made her happy face glow even more. He was surprised that it was even possible to do that. Her hair bounced as she skipped over to him and held out her hand waiting for his gun.

Spike placed the gun in her hand and stepped back. He put his hand on her waist and pushed her out in front of him. He felt her tense as soon as he touched her. He decided to ignore it and continue on with his movements.

"Okay so," She talked while he used his hands to navigate her arms into the right position, "keep my eye on the target."

"Yes, good."

Spike's hand slid across her arms until they were up with the gun pointing forward. He saw the slight shake in her hands and decided to point that out later. His hand rested against her waist and he kept their faces close together. Val was getting more tense with each second.

"Okay and then, um," She sounded nervous, "do I just shoot?"

"Why don't you try to relax𑁋"

His words came in too late. A shot rang through his ears as a bullet escaped into the open world. She jumped last minute, pointing the gun upwards. She yelped in surprise at her own movement as Spike jumped back.

She turned to him with sad eyes, "I'm sorry, I pulled it too fast!"

He held his hands up, "It's okay, let's just try again, but this time relax."

She kept her mouth closed as she got back into position. This time he kept his hands off of her to see if it would help her relax, but her hands were still shaking the gun around giving it its own little earthquake.

She took a deep breath and pulled the trigger again when she exhaled. Once again she jumped and pulled the gun upwards just as she took the shot. She missed another target.

He saw her frown and then sighed, "Val, just relax. The gun won't hurt you."

"It's hurting my ears."

"You get used to it. Now do it one more time, and seriously relax."

Val took a few more deep breaths. Her hands were still a little rocky, but she managed to slow it down. Her eyes narrowed on one of the bottles as her arms stiffened. At the last second she closed her eyes and turned the other way she took the shot.

Glass shattered along the deck of the Bebop. Spike watched as each crack tumbled down into nothing. He wasn't sure who to feel more proud of. Val, for being a good listener and actually being able to shoot something. Or himself, for being a good teacher.

"I did it!" She threw her arms up in the air in victory. Her signature smile marked her face and she ran over to him.

He reached up and snatched the gun from her hand, "Careful with that." He stowed it away in his holster before turning back to her. "I'm surprised. I thought it would take me a week to make you relaxed." He smirked deciding to tease. "Does my touch bother you that much?"

Her smile faltered slightly as she tilted her head away from him, "Uh𑁋"

"HEY!" Jet's voice rang from inside the Bebop as he stepped out. They both jumped and knew that they were in trouble. "Keep it down out here! And quit making a mess of my ship!"

Val looked over at Spike then back at Jet. She tried to sugarcoat the mess they had made with a smile, "Sorry, Jet! I'll clean it up!"

He grumbled while rubbing the back of his neck, "Yeah, yeah."

Once he was back inside, Spike and Val turned back to each other. They stared for a moment, staying quiet until they both started to laugh.

"I'll help you clean, Val."

She shook her head while patting his shoulder, "You've already done enough for me today. I'll handle it."


	4. 𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐈𝐍' 𝐁𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐒

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jet and Spike get into a huge argument and Val is stuck in the middle of it.

VAL BELIEVED THAT BEBOP WAS A PEACEFUL PLACE FOR HER TO RELAX, UNTIL TODAY.

She decided that she was going to take a break today. It had been a long two months since she'd joined and she thought she deserved a small break from all the fixing and cleaning. Her bed seemed extra comfy today as well. She wouldn't even mind sleeping in until late this afternoon.

But that all changed around lunch time.

"You know what, Jet?" Spike sounded pissed. That wasn't new. She was sure it was since she had joined that he seemed a little off. She's tried a lot of things to make their relationship better and was never sure if it was working or not. "I've had it! I've worked my butt off since day one and I feel like I never get any appreciation!"

"Where did that come from?" Jet's voice echoed off the walls in front of Val's room.

"Oh I don't know, maybe it's from your constant bickering about how much money we don't have!"

She grabbed a pillow and held it over her face. Hopefully this would pass and she could go back to her relaxing Saturday.

"Oh, I'm the one who does that? Says you!" The anger in Jet's voice kept growing with each word. "You just lounge around all day waiting for someone to tell you to do something, maybe we don't have enough money because you're just a lazy freeloader!"

This was starting to remind her of the fights she would have with her mom. Ah, nostalgia.

"You probably don't even know what that means!"

"I know exactly what it means because I'm staring right at one!"

Silence followed Jet's final statement. She knew what that silence meant. Letting the words swim around in the air so the two arguing could relish in their next steps. Spike was probably thinking of either leaving the fight or continuing it with that mellow tone that strikes you in the chest.

Surprisingly he did both.

"Well then," His voice got a lot more quiet. She would say it had gotten calm as well, but there was poison hidden in his breath. "Then I'll take my free loading ass and leave."

That's when she knew she was going to have to step in. There was a slim chance she could've pretended to sleep through the whole fight, but she doesn't like the tension in the air. She doesn't like hearing the fading footsteps. She wasn't going to let her peaceful life be ruined by another stupid soap opera plot.

Val flung herself out of the bed and rushed to the door before the scene had completely dispersed. Her curly hair was disheveled and she had no shame in that. She always wore a cropped tank to bed with sweatpants. That used to be her go to outfit everyday, but now it's just her pajamas.

Her door slid open for her to only see that Spike had already run off. Jet had his hand against the wall while his other hand massaged his temples. Once he heard her door open, his dark eyes looked over at her and she tried to give her best smile at that moment.

He pushed himself off the wall while sliding his hands down into his pockets, "Sorry you had to hear all that. Not a fun thing to wake up to, huh?" He dryly chuckled.

She shook her head, "Not really, but it's fine. Happens to the best of us, yeah?" He only hummed in response. Val let the silence return as she bounced back and forth from her heel to her toes. After a second the awkwardness just felt suffocating. "I'll go talk to him."

"Thank you."

Spike's room was not far from her's. It was only a few doors down, so it took her a few seconds to reach his room. She turned back to Jet and saw him walking away seeming dejected. It made her frown because she knew those fights were the worst. She's been in one too many, but because of that she knows exactly how to wiggle out of them.

Her ear laid against Spike's door and she could hear him rummaging around in his room. He was actually being serious about leaving which surprised her. She really thought that the two men were so close that they wouldn't let some fight get in the way.

Her closed hand hit the door softly three times, "Spike? Can I come in?"

The noises from his room stopped as the sound of his feet walking towards the door replaced it, "What do you want?"

"I just want to talk, is that alright?"

Suddenly his door was open and her eyes were met with his casual attire and a tired face. His eyes narrowed on her, "Did he send you here?"

She shook her head, "I came on my own freewill. You guys woke me up on my day off so now I'll punish you by making you talk about your feelings." While speaking she held up a finger gun up and pretended to shoot him while she talked about her plan. "Pew."

He couldn't resist the smile that crept up on him while looking at her movements. He moved to the side to give her room to come inside, "Fine."

She happily skipped inside his room and walked over anything that he had just tossed on the floor. Either he was in a hurry to leave or a hurry to get his anger situated by making a mess. She sat down on his bed next to the beg he was packing.

"I didn't know you had so many clothes," Her fingers lightly skipped through everything he packed. "I only see you wear like one outfit."

He flicked the back of her head, "I thought you were here to make me talk about my feelings, not ridicule me on my style in fashion."

She laughed while putting her hands down in her lap. She was so tempted to skim through everything in his room since this was the first time she's been inside. She turned up at him and was now realizing how tall he was while she was sitting down. She didn't like the position they found themselves in so she tapped the spot beside her.

Once seated, she began her intervention, "So this wasn't my first time witnessing those kinds of fallouts. Hell, I've been in too many to count." He raised an eyebrow, but she continued before he could ask. "This was stemmed from some suppressed anger that you guys have been holding back and it just took one snap for it all to come crumbling down."

He leaned back on the palm of his hands and sighed, "Okay and what exactly am I supposed to do here?"

"Well for starters you could figure out what's making you so upset," Val turned to him with no smile to show that she was serious about this. "The more you hold inside, the worse it'll get and that's just common sense. And then you can both stop acting like little kids and talk it out like adults." He obviously didn't like being compared to a child, so she tried sugarcoating her next words. "Spike I think you're an important asset to the Bebop. If you were to leave it'd just feel weird and unnatural. And plus we were just starting to get along so it'd suck if you decided to leave now."

Val couldn't read Spike's face. He held a stoic glare and latched it onto her eyes. She really hoped that the last part would really put the cherry on top. He rose from the bed and walked over to his dresser on the other side of the room. He opened the first drawer and pulled out a notebook and a pen.

She felt pride rush through her as she thought that he would be writing down what made him so angry.

Instead he handed her a piece of paper with one word : focus.

"Say it."

She raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"Say that word that I just wrote down."

She didn't quite understand what the word focus had to do with any of what she just said. But if it made him happy, she'd do it.

"Focus."

He snorted at her attempt to sound it out. Her accent made it the word sound like she was trying to say "fuck us" instead of "focus."

"Again."

⬩ ❖ ⬩

Val finally made it back to the room that Jet had hidden himself away in. He sat against a chair with his feet up on the table. The wall in front of them showed them the great view of space. The two men were used to the view of the stars by now, but Val could never get used to it.

It felt unreal. She could actually see Mars from an outsider's perspective and travel to different planets.

She walked up next to Jet but kept her eyes on the outside world.

"So how'd it go?" Jet's eyes were glued to the table in front of him. He felt embarrassed that Val had heard the whole fight earlier today.

She shrugged, "He made fun of my accent for a good thirty minutes which I think calmed him down so yippie I guess." She slightly shook her fists in victory. "But don't that excludes you from opening up."

Before she could dig deeper than she did Spike, the door behind them opened up. She heard the familiar footsteps step inside the room and wasn't sure if she should be worried for another fight or pray that her letting Spike bully her made him calm down.

"Val, I think I can take this from here," Spike's voice finally broke through the silence as he made his way up the stairs to where they were.

She let out a loud sigh of relaxation as her shoulders slumped down, "Oh thank god." She straightened her back and clapped her hands together, "Cool, well then I'll be in my room taking a very long nap. Have fun."

As she walked away to leave the two men alone, Spike's cold fingers brushed against her arm. She felt a shiver slowly crawl up her spine from his touch unsure as to why. He leaned over and whispered so only she could hear, "Thank you."

She knew it probably put a dent in Spike's pride to be so vulnerable like this, but she was happy to see that her peaceful life on the Bebop had been repaired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is really just a filler chapter.


	5. 𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Val drags Spike to go roller skating with her

ANOTHER MONTH SPED BY.

Val was still Val. Working nonstop almost everyday until exactly 11:00 at night. Going on supply runs every now and then. Sometimes she stays out the whole day just to travel around each new area. Sometimes Spike would tag along, but he'd always lose her and wouldn't be able to find her until the end of the day.

Just like today.

One second he was in the middle of conversation with her and the next she was gone. He assumed that she liked to be on her own, but today wasn't a good time. He really only came with her to make sure that she was safe. Jupiter can get scary at times and he's only ever seen her shoot a gun once.

Spike doesn't know how she does it. How can she miraculously disappear from sight?

He turned every corner and couldn't seem to find her. He remained calm with his movements so everyone that was eyeing him wouldn't get suspicious.

Did Val find him boring? Is that why she would run off? No way, Spike's not boring. If anything she's boring.

He spent a good hour searching for her. He checked bars, shops, alleyways. He didn't know what to expect when he found her. Maybe she was just skipping around like a child, maybe she was making friends with a group of strangers, or maybe she was laying in the snow painting it red. He didn't want to think like that, but in this day and age it could happen.

Finally he had reached the one alleyway that was left. There she was, wrapped up in an oversized sweatshirt probably freezing her tail off. Two men in front of her listening to her babble away about some nonsense while holding something out to them. They looked over at Spike and paled, one even stepped away nervously. When Val noticed their reaction she turned around and immediately slipped whatever she was holding away in her pocket.

Her lips widened into her gapped tooth smile, "Hey Spike. You finally found me." Val's cheeks were dusted red either from embarrassment or from the cold. Her eyes stared him up and down and she was starting to act as if she was hiding something.

He stopped once he reached her side, "Are these men bothering you?"

She turned towards the men and shook her head, "Nope. If anything I'm bothering them." She laughed before hooking her arm around Spike's. She started to drag him away, no longer wanting to be in that scene anymore. She turned back and waved. "Have a good day!"

They both rolled their eyes and staggered away seeming upset by the way they grumbled. Spike stared at their fading figures in confusion. They were both prominently skinny and their eyes were sunken back into their heads. Their skin looked like leather from what he could see.

He turned back to Val as the sun hit him once more when they removed themselves from the alleyway, "What was that about?"

She stared ahead and kept quiet for a moment before speaking, "I was trying to set up a threeway."

He pulled his arm back from her immediately. His lips turned up into a smile of surprise, "You were what?"

Her eyes darted over to him as she started to smile as well, "What? I'm bored."

He clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth, "I feel like you're lying to me."

"I am," She faced him and winked. Then she twirled around and stopped in front of him. Her freezing hands took a hold of his nimble fingers and held them close. "So while I was running away from you, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye."

He stared down at their hands then looked back at her. He was used to her touching him now. She was a very affectionate person and wasn't shy about that.

"And what would that be?"

"Have you ever gone roller skating?"

His eyes went up to the back of his head. Another thing he learned about himself was that it was hard to say no to her. She always found a way around his no or would annoy him until he said yes.

He sighed, "Maybe once when I was younger, why did you see a roller skating rink?"

"I did, yes," She gripped his hands tighter. "So. . .can we go?"

⬩ ❖ ⬩

Spike was starting to remember just how bad he was at roller skating. Val already seemed like a pro with how easily she gilded into the rink. Spike was struggling to even stand. She leaned against the border with a cocky smirk waiting for him to join her.

He glared at her causing her to laugh, "What?"

She shrugged, "I'm just so used to you seeming all cool and now here you are stumbling in front of me."

He scoffed, "Fuck off."

Spike gripped the border between the rink and the outside and slowly used it to propel him forward. He stopped himself and flung forward, but he was able to catch himself before he fell. He rounded the corner and finally slipped down into the rink. Val clapped when he didn't fall as soon as he made it in.

The rink was definitely dated. Only three other people were there skating around and very few workers. The wood that was layered on the rink had a few dangerous openings that could mean trouble for them later on. Some lights were flickering up above and the speakers that were playing music from almost 100 years ago were quiet.

But when he turned to Val the whole rink lightened up as soon as she smiled.

She slipped past him and rolled around on her skates to face him again, "Well are you going to skate or are you just going to keep eyeing me?"

"I'm not eyeing you," He turned his face so that he could look the other way.

He pushed his foot down on the front of the break to try and catch up to her. She left some space beside her so that he could use the wall to hold him until he got comfortable. One skate kept going in front of the other and he just kept slipping around. Val looked like she was gliding on air.

"Do you need help?" She held out her hand to him.

He simply shook his head, "No, I'll be fine." He tried his best to keep rhythm with his feet. How could something that looks so easy be so hard. He groaned. "How are you so good at this?"

"I had a friend who worked at a roller skating rink so I would go all the time," She smiled back at her memories when suddenly Spike lurched forward. Her arms immediately reached out to him. Her hand was placed on his chest while she brought him back up steadily. "You good?"

He was ready with an answer until his eyes got a hold of her blue gaze. She still left her hand on his chest and stood quietly waiting for an answer while he stumbled around with his words.

Finally he was snapped away from his trance, "Yeah I'm good."

She removed her hand from his chest only to hold it out to him, "If you want, you can hold my hand. I'll make sure to not let you fall."

Spike looked at her open palm wondering if it would be okay to take it. Val was only trying to make sure he didn't fall and was in no way trying to make a move on him. He wrapped his fingers around her cold hand and flinched when she tightened the hold.

"Oh my god your hands are cold."

"Well we were outside for a good hour or so," She laughed while beginning to skate again. He gripped her hand while trying to keep up with her pace. "Just sway for feet back and forth and let yourself glide. Just watch my feet, Spike."

His brown eyes scanned down to the floor. The wheels of her skates rolled around easily on the old, wooden floor. He copied the way she held her legs and how she kept her knees relaxed. She shifted weight onto each skate which kept her rolling.

At some point Spike realized that he was steadily skating just like Val. Her proud smile met his eyes and he couldn't hide the fact that it warmed him up. He was beginning to think that her smile had some magical spell cast upon it. Whoever sees it would feel the exact same emotion she was.

The world around them faded. The riggety floor was no longer a problem to Spike; he felt safe with her holding his hand. He could say he felt like a little school boy on his first date. Slightly rosy cheeks, nervous glances. Was this her plan all along? To get him in this vulnerable state?

Spike's skate rubbed against her's causing him to slip back out of the trance and onto the ground. His tailbone made direct contact with the wood making him wince. Val turned around and held out her hand again.

"Sorry, that was totally my fault. Got lost in thought there," She laughed while rubbing the back of her neck.

He sighed, taking her hand, "I think that's enough skating for me today." While she pulled him up, he caught himself before slipping again. He can't risk getting caught in another one of her trances.

⬩ ❖ ⬩

After spending hours at the rink, the two finally left into the night. Val was carrying a small dog stuffed animal that they had won at the arcade after finding a way to cheat on getting tickets. They thought for sure they would get caught, but the workers didn't seem to care.

They danced on the light up dance tiles, raced each other, ate cold pizza and awful cheese nachos, and just did everything the rink had to offer.

Spike chuckled while looking at the night sky, "Jet's probably going to get mad that we were out so late."

Val shrugged, "Oh well. We were having fun and he can come next time if he wants to."

He reached inside his pocket and pulled out his pack of cigarettes. She took a step away from him hating the smell of it when he would light the stick. He took a long drag before blowing it off to the side so it wouldn't get in her face.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see her huddling close with herself to keep warm. She was used to Mar's warm weather so she probably never had a need for winter clothes. He left the cigarette hanging from his mouth so that he could unzip his coat and slip it off. Then he performed the cliche move of throwing it over her.

Her smile came back as she pulled it close around her body. Her smile turned into a smirk, "Is this an attempt to flirt with me, Spike?"

"I don't know, was that an attempt at going on a date with me?"

Their heads turned towards each other at the same time, both having a cocky expression painted on them.

She rolled her eyes, "In your dreams, cowboy." With the ending of her sentence, their laughter began to ring through the city. After they quieted down she hooked her teeth onto the puppy so that her arms could be free to slip into his coat. She skipped a few steps in front of him then turned with a cunning smile. "Race you to the ship!"

Before he could answer her, she was already off. No wonder she'd always gotten away from him. She was fast. Once it finally registered what she was saying, he took off right behind her.

"Hey, wait!"


	6. 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐃𝐀𝐘

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Val tags along with Jet and Spike on a bounty and things get a little spicy.

“DRINK?”

Soft light danced along the walls that enclosed around them. In the back played soft slow music. Their reflections stared back at them on the clean tile floor. Everything gleamed with gold. Val seemed to perfectly blend in. Her golden hair, blue eyes, and white dress. She looked like an angel in her castle high up in Heaven.

The dress she wore reached mid thigh. It held itself up on her shoulders with thin straps and a square neckline. A slit ran along the side of her thighs that were pushed together while she sat on the bar stool. The top of her face was covered by a mask that resembled a pair of white wings.

Spike felt underdressed being next to her. He wore a white tux and had the same mask as Val. Jet was somewhere in the room wearing the same thing as him. It was supposed to be just Spike and Jet on this bounty, but Val insisted she tag along too. She also insisted on the matching outfits.

Spike leaned against the counter of the bar waiting for her wandering eyes to meet his. Finally they locked together and she smiled with a slight shake of her head, “No thanks. You shouldn’t be drinking either.” She nudged his arm with her elbow while laughing to herself. He softly smiled back at her. “You have a bounty to be looking for and these masks make it pretty hard.”

He rolled his eyes, “Which is a good reason to drink.”

She shook her head disappointingly, “Don’t you dare, Spike.”

He smirked at her response. He wasn’t actually going to drink tonight. She was right, it would be a dumb idea if he did. His vision would get all blurry and the masquerade theme was not helping one bit.

He wished to be as easy going as the people on the dance floor. The way they swayed with each other and danced to the songs that played overhead. Instead he was stuck sitting down swirling his head around for a tall man with dark hair.

He wouldn’t be able to see the top of his face so he memorized everything else. His top lip disappeared on the left side from some nasty scar that he had gotten. His black hair was always slicked away with too much gel. Finally his name was Vince. The bounty on his head held a high price which is exactly why this night was important to him.

While Spike was scanning the area he could hear the womanly giggles leaving Val’s mouth. He paid no attention to it thinking that she was just showing affection to another man that she would later shoot down. Val didn’t seem the relationship type.

“You were the first thing I spotted as soon as I came in, and I told myself that I had to talk to this beautiful angel,” The male’s voice sounded like something straight out of a 1920’s film.

Val scoffed, “Really? I feel like you use that line a lot.”

“No truly that’s what I thought, honestly!” He chuckled handsomely. “But then I saw this man next to you and I realized that you must be a taken woman?”

She twisted her head to stare at the distracted Spike, “No. We’re nothing like that. Just friends.”

“Mm, so I’m sure he won’t mind if I steal you away?”

“Well I know that I certainly wouldn’t mind.”

And with that, the flirts had left to the dance floor. Spike finally turned to stare at the now empty seat. He knew he could trust her to handle herself in case things went downhill with the stranger. All they were doing was dancing right? No harm in that.

He wasn’t sure how long he had sat there by himself or how long he had searched the room over and over again. His eyes started to get dry with each time they would roll back to the same area. No man in that room had enough gel in his hair or a scar to make him pop up from his chair.

Jet must have had the same luck. He staggered over to Spike with a disappointed stance. He took the seat that Val had once resided in. He leaned down on the counter with a roll of his lips before lopping his head to the side.

“I don’t think this guy is going to show up tonight,” Jet’s words made Spike mentally eye roll. “He’s always here at 9:00 specifically and it’s now almost 10:30. We should probably call it a night.”

Spike hummed his agreement, “Yeah I think so too.”

Jet picked his head up and looked around, “Where’s Val?”

He shrugged, “Beats me. She left to go dance with some guy about an hour ago.”

Jet turned back to him with a confused expression, “Really? I was out there for quite a while and I’d never seen her once.”

Spike forehead fell into his hand with a long sigh, “I’ll go find her then.”

Well that ruined his comfort thought. If she had never met the dancefloor then what on earth could she be doing with this guy? He felt nervous thinking that she wasn’t safe. He was sure she didn’t know the first thing about self defense. Hopefully if she got into any real trouble, she would just scream at the top of her lungs. Or kick him where it hurts then run for it.

She may not be strong, but she was at least smart.

He exited from the dance room and stalked down the long hallway. There were many different rooms littered all over this place and hopefully she would be in one of them.

It was the first room diagonal from the room he was just in. He heard noises from within and knew that it had to be them. But the last thing he wanted to do was open the door. His ear pressed against what divided them and those noises were much more prominent.

Anger burned inside of Spike, but the reason he was unsure of. He wasted no time pushing open the large banquet door to reveal just what he didn’t want to see. Light from inside the hall lit up the room ahead and painted a picture he was disgusted to look at.

Val was pushed against one of the empty tables with her legs spread open. Her blonde hair sprawled out onto the white cloth that decorated the room. Her mouth wide open allowing lewds sounds to leave her. The stranger was hidden away in her neck while his pants dangled at his knees. His lower half was thrusting into her harshly causing the table to rock.

A gasp left Val’s lips and it wasn’t from pleasure, “Spike! What are you doing here?” 

The man immediately stopped his movements unsure of what to do next. Spike slammed the door closed behind him just in case anyone else would happen to walk by, “I was on my way to find you after the bounty was a no show. This is the last thing that I wanted to find.” He wasn’t sure if he was upset at the fact that Val let a total stranger do her in such a public area or if it was something hidden underneath. “Do you even know this guy’s name?”

Val’s face scrunched into one of fear and shame. She pushed the male off of her and quickly fixed herself before Spike could see anything. She was stumbling over her words afraid of what he was going to say next.

“Wait you guys are bounty hunters?” The stranger was fixing his pants when looking between Val and Spike.

As soon as he turned to look at Spike, a new rage filled him. A large scar graced his upper lip and his tousled hair was held together by mountains of gel. Spike could practically feel a beast ready to emerge from him.

“You!” He growled angrily pointing a finger at the now revealed Vince. “I spent the whole night looking for you and here I find you fucking my friend? Val, did you even know he was the bounty?”

Val walked behind that table that she was just on, “I had no idea.”

Vince chuckled while backing away from the two of them, “Well listen, we all have had a rough night so I think it would just be best if you’d let me go.”

“You would like that wouldn’t you?” Spike glared at him as they both drew their guns with a quick swipe of their hands. Val yelped and immediately hid behind the table. “I’m not going to do that because now I’m mad.”

Vince only clicked his tongue while his finger started to ease its way down on the trigger. From the corner of his eye, Spike could see Val crawling around the tables to get to Spike’s side of the room.

That’s when the first shot rang through. Val was once again screamed and quickly hid underneath a clothed table. Meanwhile the two men had shots ringing throughout the room. Spike had to be careful to not hit him in any vital areas. If he were to die, the bounty would be gone. Vince had no limits. He could get Spike and run away with nothing to lose.

They used the whole room as a battlefield. Rolling over tables and using them as a trench while trying to figure out their next moves. From outside they could hear the echoes of worried screams exiting the building. They must have heard the gunshots.

Spike lifted the white cloth of the table he was hidden behind knowing that Val had stuff herself under there. She was curled down into a ball trying to catch the breath that wasn’t there. Her hands gripped either side of her head as her eyes leaked down onto her cheeks.

He sighed knowing that he’d still have to confront her later. He slipped the cloth back down and positioned himself above the table. Once he saw Vince do the same, he shot. Vince barely dodged it and moved onto the next table.

Spike assumed that it was safe to move forward. He brushed past the table and got closer to Vince’s side, but what a mistake that was. Vince was fast with his gun and before he knew it a bullet was coming right towards him.

The spinning piece of metal went right through Spike’s side. It went straight through him and finally landed elsewhere in the room. The sudden pain from the new gash sent Spike down to the grounder. He groaned while his pale hand ghosted over his wound. The once pale hand was now painted red.

Everything after that seemed to happen in a flash. Vince pointed the gun directly at Spike, but before another bullet could leave, Val emerged from her hideaway. She took Spike’s gun into her hands and stood in the position that he taught her.

He tried to push himself up to stop her, ignoring her determined glare towards Vince.

Vince scoffed and waved his gun around while talking, “Come on, Angel. You won’t actually shoot me. You’re too scar一”

His words were cut off by the sound of Val pulling down the trigger.

⬩ ❖ ⬩

“You know, Jet,” Spike slurred his words around angrily being high on pain meds. His wound was wrapped up and the bounty was caught. They had been paid but no one felt like celebrating. “Val had a big role in tonight’s bounty.”

“Spike,” She turned her head around to glare at him. Her cheeks had dry areas from where she had been crying during the fight and after the fight. Her eyes had started to get puffy and red.

“No, no, no,” He glared right back at her. “Let me tell Jet about what I walked in on! Jet, you won’t believe it but our little innocent Val here had her legs wide open for some stranger! In a public area too. . .”

They walked down to the docks of where the Bebop stayed afloat. Val had taken her heels off a long time ago along with her mask. Jet had his mask above his head with an unreadable expression. Spike kept his eyes on Val with an angry glare.

“You’re acting like a one night stand isn’t normal,” She really didn’t want to be there. She wanted to be locked away in her room and never come out until someone wiped Spike’s memory.

He laughed, “They are normal, but Jesus Christ, Val! At least learn the person’s name! Like oh my god, how desperate for attention are you?”

They were only meters away from the ship, but she stopped anyway. He got to look at her angry and embarrassed face fully as she turned around, “Excuse me?”

“I mean you’re obviously dying for attention so much so that you would sleep with an unattractive man for god’s sake! How did it feel to kiss a man with no upper lip? Oh and look!” He lazily pointed at her neck. “You even let him give you hickies!”

“I don’t need you to judge me for my sex life!”

“I’m not judging you for your sex life, I’m simply telling the truth. You dropped your panties for some random guy because that’s how desperate you are. I don’t know maybe it’s because your dad didn’t give you enough attention as a child so now whenever a man is nice to you, you immediately get down on your knees,” He got closer to her with each word. She simply cowered down. “After tonight, I’ve realized that you’re just another easy slut.”

Jet’s eyebrows raised at Spike’s interesting choice of words, “Hey Spike, you shouldn’t say those things. Your jealousy is showing.”

“I’m not jealous!” Spike felt a jab in his heart when he turned back to Val and saw that she was once again crying tonight. All of her makeup had been washed off by her tears. He suddenly wanted to take back his words and never let them out again.

“You know what? Yeah I am looking for attention, so what?” She started to step towards him causing him to become the one who was cowering. “That still doesn’t give you the right to judge me and call me a slut! You don’t get to judge what I do behind closed doors and you don’t get to determine if I’m a respectable woman just because I had sex with a man! Everyone has sex Spike! Surprise! And yeah maybe I am easy, but at least I’m not a fucking jerk!”

That was the last time he saw Val that night. After leaving him speechless, she stormed back onto the ship and locked herself away in her room. He looked back on how fearful she looked under that table and realized that tonight was not a good night for this type of argument.

“You better find a way to fix this, Spike.”


	7. 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING : ALCOHOL ABUSE, HARRASSMENT

VAL COULD HEAR SPIKE AND JET'S LAUGHTER BOMBARDING THE HALLS ALL THE WAY DOWN TO HER ROOM.

It was currently midnight and she had spent the whole day working on different things on the ship. All she wanted was for a few good hours of sleep before finding some more work to do. Honestly she's been breaking things and fixing them just to avoid Spike.

They haven't talked since that night. Val was too hurt by his words to even give him a glance. Spike hasn't been able to find the words to apologize to her.

And tonight would only make it so much worse.

All she was going to do was to ask Jet to politely quiet down and hopefully they would both comply. Maybe they would notice the dark bags under her eyes from stress and working that they'd take pity and not many any noise for the rest of the night.

The door slid open to the sound of clicking drinks. Val witnessed the two of them chugging down glass bottles of beer. What she wouldn't give to have one at that moment. Life had gotten so stressful out of nowhere that she'd like to just lay back with multiple𑁋

No. She swore to herself she wouldn't.

Val caught Spike's eye and he finally thought it was a good time to actually say something to her, "Val, come drink with us!"

She didn't even give him a glance. She paid him no mind while she looked over at Jet, "Could you keep it down just a little, please?"

Jet gave her a reassuring smile and waved her off, "Yeah, I'll be sure to keep Spike quiet. You go get some sleep."

Val felt grateful that the conversation was kept short so that she can leave and continue to avoid Spike, but he wanted other things. He wanted to briskly slide past their fight and act like it never happened. He didn't like the hostile environment that it caused.

"Oh come on, Val," He leaned forward on the yellow couch and held out a half empty bottle. "Drink will us, it'll be fun."

. . .It'll be fun. . .

Fun. Val was the life of the party whenever she would have a few drinks in her system. It's why she did it so much, right?

For the first time in days, her blues eyes pierced down into his soul making him gulp. The glare she carried was no sweet one.

"I'm fine thank you."

He wasn't going to give up, "Val," He stepped over the couch and brought the drink closer, "Just one sip."

_. . .Just one sip. . ._

The smell of alcohol reached her nose making her grimace and feel more choked than she already had been before, "No, I said I'm fine."

He wiggled the drink out making the liquid slosh around inside the glass. The condensation dripped down the bottle making it shimmer under the artificial light, "It's just one drink. What's the worst that can happen?"

_. . .What's the worst that can happen. . ._

Each second that passed, the walls around Val seemed to close around her. It was getting hard to breathe. It was such a small offer and yet she felt overwhelmed by it. Everything was crashing down on her and having Spike ignore everything he said to her, make it crack. She wanted to rip the bottle from his hand and forget everything once again.

"Spike," Jet's voice had never sounded so golden and perfect to Val. "She said no."

Val escaped as soon as she could. She couldn't be in that room for another second. Avoiding her problems seemed like such a sweet idea, but she promised herself she wouldn't do this again. Her head was racing and she had to find something to calm it down. She had to take her mind off of the gleaming drink, the stress, Spike.

Val wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to keep this all up. The glass above her was slowly cracking and it would only take one more thing to make it all crash down and make her fall back into the pit she worked so hard to crawl out of.

She rushed back into her room only to grab her bag of tools. She wanted to sleep, but now there was so much keeping her awake. What if she had a bad dream? Or what if they get so drunk they fall asleep and puke and choke and die? What if she doesn't make it through the night?

⬩ ❖ ⬩

Val only worked on one wall. She didn't do much damage to anything. The only thing she really did was take down the front of the wall in front of Spike's room. With all the metal out of the way, the only thing she could see was a bunch of wires. After taking a minute to just study each wire, she started to put the wall back up to normal.

She was putting the last two screws in place when the door from the living room opened. She had been working on the wall for a few hours which probably meant it was way late into the night, probably almost morning.

Large feet padded against the metal flooring as they came up to her.

She couldn't look at him. She pretended that he didn't exist.

"I thought you were going to bed," Spike leaned against the wall that stood after his door. Still having a drink in hand he took a few sips before continuing with his words. "What are you doing up?"

She said nothing as she put the final screw in. All that hard work to keep her mind off of everything was going into the gutter and it was only going to get worse.

"Thirsty?" As she did the final twist of the screw, Spike pushed himself off the wall and placed the drink against her closed lips. She jumped as her heart rate spiked.

She smacked his hand away as quick as she could while cautiously wiping her mouth off, "Don't do that, Spike!"

He rolled his brown eyes feeling more peeved each second, "What is your deal? Are you scared of one sip?"

She shook her head, annoyed, "Just shut up and leave me alone." Each second with Spike started to hurt more and more. If she could, she would run off this ship and jump into the water to let herself sink to the bottom. She glanced at the wall trying to find something to distract herself with something, anything. "I messed up a screw. I have to redo it so can you please just go back out there until I'm done?"

There was no response from him as she turned to go walk back to the beginning of the wall. She heard his drink touch the ground with a small clink and his feet coming closer to her.

His skinny fingers wrapped tightly around her wrist, he pulled her back and twisted her around until she was finally facing him. He grabbed her other wrist and pushed her harshly against the wall. His leg slowly placed itself in between her legs as it slowly inched further up.

The cracking of her inner walls were causing her to have a headache already. It was about to tumble through.

Val remained still, but the fear in her eyes did not go unnoticed. Spike leaned his head down into her neck causing his hot breath to tickle against her. She pulled back with a small squeak trying to gain enough courage to move.

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about what you looked like under that guy," His voice was low and she wasn't sure if it was with lust or menace. "How you were basically coming apart underneath him. It's made me wonder at night what you would look like under me." His breath grew closer until his lips were right against her neck. She closed her eyes tight wishing it was some kind of nightmare. "I want you." Another long kiss against her neck causing her to tear up. "I want to feel you all over." He bit harshly against the skin underneath her soft jawbone making the first tear of the night fall. "You're all that I want, Val. . ."

Spike was going to go further with his kisses, but she couldn't take it anymore. This isn't what she wanted. The stench of alcohol lingered against him and Val knew he wasn't in his right state of mind.

"I'll scream if you don't get off me," She opened her eyes to look down into his brown ones.

That's when he saw the tears that he made fall. It was the second time he made Val cry, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

He silently removed himself from her body. She felt heavily relieved as soon as her wrists were set free. He rubbed his fingers against the bottom of his face as he blew out a long breath. She assumed that the realization of what he just did, hit him. He bent down and picked up his bottle before stepping towards his door. His eyes glanced over at her and he opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. Then he disappeared into his room.

Val stood there, silently.

Her breathing quickened as more tears streamed down her face. From down the hall she could hear the faint whispers of her past.

_It's just one drink._

_Are you scared?_

_You're overreacting._

_It'll make you feel good._

She stared down to that bright door. It was like a hidden magnet. Pulling her towards the thing she swore to not touch. But her feet could no longer ignore that pull. Her stress needed something. Nothing else seemed to work.

_Quit being dramatic, just drink it._

_Come on, _____, you know you want to._

The large door that led to the living room slowly slid open, and then it was. Shining in all of its glory. Just a box full of beers, just for her.

Everything around her and those bottles disappeared. Only thing that remained was the slight pulling she had towards the drinks and the faint whispers of her past.

Val worked so hard.

But it all came crashing down as soon as she opened her first bottle. All of the stress that she had endured ever since she turned sober had crashed down on her. The faces that she became sober for slowly disappeared in that moment.

The more she drank the worse she got. She thought that everything would melt away in seconds just like it used to, but it only made it worse. She felt so anxious and scared, sad and lonely.

Did it stop her? No. Not at all. That night had broken Val.

⬩ ❖ ⬩

Jet was fast asleep when the frantic knocks woke him up. He would've gone back to bed if the knocks stopped, but they were continuous and loud. He groaned loudly as he threw his sheets off to the side.

The time was nearly six in the morning. Something bad must have happened if someone was knocking so loudly so early in the morning.

He pressed the button that opened the door as he softly rubbed his eyes. Luckily for him he didn't indulge in that much drinking so the hangover was nothing.

The door opened to a marvelous sight. Val's eyes were spewing with tears as her chest heaved up and down. She reeked of alcohol right where she stood and her tank top was even drenched in some. She seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack.

"Val, Jesus Christ, what happened?" Jet's voice was frantic as he quickly grabbed her shoulders to make sure she felt like this was real and not some illusion.

She sobbed so loud he was sure Spike could hear it all the way from his room, "I messed up, Jet! I messed up so bad! I think I just killed myself!"

His eyes nearly fell out of his head, "What?"

"I drank so much, Jet! I drank an entire case and almost made it halfway through the next one! And I tried to puke it all up but then I got scared and then I almost started drinking again," She was choking on ait as her hands went up into her hair, "and I can't lock myself in my room because I know I'll just go back out and I can't stay in Spike's room because he's so fucking scary right now! I don't want to die, Jet!"

He didn't know what to say to make her calm down because at that moment she was traumatized. He pulled her close into his arms as his warm hand rubbed and up and down her back. He allowed her to cry loudly into his chest. Her poor screams broke his heart as he tried his best to calm her down.

"Hey, you're not going to die okay? I'll protect you," He pulled back and bent down to her eye level. His warm hand was now pressed against her cheek as he tried to wipe the stream of tears away. "You can stay in my room tonight if that's what will make you feel safe."

Val's whole demeanour had changed. She seemed perfectly fine just hours ago, but he knew something must have snapped. There was a lot more to the story that he was missing, but he wasn't going to question her now. For now she just needed some comforting.

She shook her head quickly as her breathing started to calm, "Please."

Jet stood up straight and moved over to let her into his room, "Then let's get you to bed."

That night, or morning per say, Val clung to Jet like a small child fearing for her life while she cried every last tear she had for that day. She slept peacefully as her body prepared for what the next few hours would bring.


	8. 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐒

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING : TALKS ABOUT TOPICS SUCH AS DRUG/ALCOHOL ABUSE AND OVERDOSING.

A SHORT WHISTLE BLEW FROM SPIKE'S LIPS AS HE WATCHED JET THROW EMPTY BOTTLES AWAY.

"Sorry Jet, I thought I threw all the bottles away," His voice was strained and dry, showing that he had just woken up. His hand scratched the back of his head as he walked over to his friend.

He didn't remember drinking all the bottles that were out, there too many.

Jet had a strange expression face. Spike couldn't tell if he was deep in thought or just tired. His face almost seemed solemn, maybe even confused. The hangover was probably hitting him hard.

"You should talk to Val. She's outside," That's all Jet had to say for Spike's memory to come back. The horrible mistake he had made and the fearful look in the poor girl's eyes. His heart practically skipped a beat when he remembered it all. "You can't keep avoiding it."

Spike hand ran down his face as a sigh dragged from his mouth, "You're right. I'll go talk to her."

It was an inevitable situation anyway. They couldn't continue to live on the same ship and completely avoid each other. He also missed talking to her, last night he was hoping to push it all under the rug and yet he just made things worse. He missed their little dates that they would have and how his name sounded in her voice. He missed her bright smile as well.

Spike grimaced as the bright sun shined down onto his face. He held his hand out to block it from his eyes, but it still stung his sight. From further down, he could see the small speck that was Val. She was sitting down staring directly into the sun with her feet hanging over the ship.

When he finally made it over to her, he sat down and copied her stance with his legs hanging over the ship. The water was beautiful at this time of day, but his eyes stayed on her.

Dark bags circled her eyes along with a red puffiness, she looked pale, almost green. She looked like a zombie of some sort.

"I think I owe you a few apologies," Spike tried to make his voice sound light hearted to ease the tense mood.

Val just sat in a painful silence. The soft ocean breeze blew her curls back gently along with the ship. For a whole minute they sat in an uncomfortable silence while the waves crashed against the ships.

"I was sober for two years."

Spike felt something go straight through him when she said those words. He closed his eyes hoping that when he opened them up he'd wake up from this nightmare. All those bottles that Jet was picking up this morning were Val's and he knew he had a hand in her ruining her streak as well as pressuring her to drink last night.

"Shit, Val," He dropped his head in his hands. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea."

"It's okay. You didn't know."

He could tell by the tone of her voice that she was lying straight through her teeth. She was angry and upset that she had lost something she worked so hard for. She can't exactly be mad at him because he's right he didn't know, but there's still a little spot of anger for him.

"Still, I'm just sorry about everything last night," He dropped his hands away from his face and turned to stare at her. "I'm sorry about just this whole situation we're in. I acted in a way that I shouldn't have and I'm sorry."

There was no shift in her expression. She still looked like a sick zombie, "It's fine. I'm just glad you apologized and hopefully we can go back to normal."

Spike placed his hand on top of her fragile, shaking hand, "Are you going to be okay?"

Val's hand flipped over and held tightly onto his. Finally her unreadable face broke. Her bottom lip started to quiver and he saw the flood of tears swell up in her eyes.

"I don't know. . ." Her voice cracked as she kept trying to hold back her tears. "I just feel like shit, like a huge pile of shit. I worked so hard to become sober for my brother and Ijust easily let it fall apart."

"Your brother?"

Another round of silence blew by as Val debated if she was really ready to open up. She had to do it earlier with Jet so she could explain what happened last night and she still wasn't sure what his reaction was.

She took a deep breath and gently squeezed his hand before talking, "Yeah. . .I did really stupid and because of that something terrible happened." With her other hand, she hid her face down into her palm and he could tell by the way she was hunched over that she could no longer hold in her tears. "It's such a stupid story. . ."

Spike slipped his hand away from her's so he could place it onto her back. His thumb rubbed gently against her spine while his other hand replaced the open space in her hand, "You don't have to tell me, Val. It's okay."

"No," She lifted her head up and took a deep breath. "I have to because you guys have been so nice to me and I've only been keeping things from you and I feel like you deserve to know the truth."

When her soft blue eyes met his, he wanted nothing more than to know how to comfort her. He wished he could've seen it sooner, how the clear blue glass was breaking inside them, "Okay, tell me your story."

She closed her eyes while turning her head back to the shining sun. With a sigh she began, "I told you that me and my brother were twins, right?" He nodded. "Well it was funny to me I guess because we attached ourselves to a specific parent. My dad was my best friend while my mom was my worst enemy. She was constantly yelling at me and I just felt like I was on thin ice around her and that I could never be the perfect child she wanted. Oh but she loved my brother. So because of that I wanted to have my rebellious phase and go against her wishes just to spite her and suddenly I was senior and I never got to go through that phase. I thought that I had wasted my entire school life being this perfect child and then suddenly I met him. It was like some god had finally answered my prayers."

Val could picture the moment clearly. It was straight from the movies. He stepped right through that door and into the classroom and she felt Cupid's bow go straight through her. His black hair lazily pushed back and his baggy clothes that somehow fit his body just right. His smirk, his laugh, the way he would hold her. She remembered it all so vividly with six feet on the ground above it. How she wished those were the memories that she could focus on.

"His name was Matthew. Spike, I loved this man," She turned back to him to show that there were no lies hidden in her eyes. "I loved him so much. I craved his attention so badly that I started doing things that he would do meaning that I was able to get a hold on alcohol and eventually drugs. That's what it took for him to notice me. At some point we started dating and finally everything was in place and it all felt so perfect to me."

Spike called back on a time when he felt the same things she was describing. He too wished he could go back to those happy days with his love, but he knew that was just wishful thinking.

"But that's the moment I signed my fate, there was no going back after that. Matthew was an angel who out of nowhere became some asshole. He would get on to me for the smallest things and it reminded me so much of my mom it hurt. I lost friends from how much I hung around Matt. My grades fell which caused my mom to get more angry and my dad's relationship with me started to go to shit because I stopped showing up to work. I lost everything and because of that I turned to those little shitty things as an escape and eventually I couldn't stop. And Matt just kept supplying it all and would tell me that I'm just overreacting when I would express my worries of addiction," She dryly laughed while shaking her head. "I'm such an idiot. . .I don't know why I didn't just leave him!"

"Hey don't say that," Spike moved her head to make her face him. "That's not true Val."

"But it is!" She fearfully pulled away from his touch. "I knew what he was doing! I knew he was a bad person and I knew that I should've ran when I had that chance, but I didn't! Because I was scared of losing everything I once had, so I faked my happiness just so I could feel something, anything," She was about to start crumbling once again. Her lip quivered as she turned away from him again so he couldn't watch her.

"Val, you don't have to continue if you don't want to."

Another head shake came from her causing her curls to gently shake, "No. I need you to hear this. I need to know that I'm the reason my brother is. . .dead. . ." The last word hung onto a choke that escaped her.

He was taken off guard by her words. He tried leaning down to get a better look at her face but she refused to look at him, "What are you talking about? What happened?"

Val dropped her head down into her hands and stayed silent for a long, dreadful minute. He could hear her desperately trying to calm her breathing as the memories came rushing back. Her brother, the complete opposite of her, stepping into the room and asking a simple question that could've been avoided.

"It was two weeks before graduation, just two week," Her voice was high in pitch as she tried her best holding back any tears. "My brother came into my room and he. . .he told me that he didn't want to go into college with a clean slate." She shook her head with an eye roll. "At this time everyone at school knew I was high and that my boyfriend had everything so that's why my brother came to me. I went to Matthew and I thought for whatever fucking reason that it would be so funny to watch my scrawny brother trip out on some fentanyl." Spike drew in a long breath. "And I told him! I told him to not take it without me there! And then I. . .I went into his room one night and. . .and. . ."

The image was so dark yet so clear to Val. It was way past midnight when she snuck into his room to ask just one question about homework that she was behind on. He was laying with his face towards the wall, but she knew by the way he was slumped over and how cold his body was when she touched him that something wrong had happened.

That's when the tears stopped holding each other back. She gave up. He thought for a moment she was going to jump off the ledge of the boat and down into the water. His skinny arms quickly wrapped themselves around her. He pushed her blonde head against his chest and let her cry into his warmth.

"I had to go and tell my mom, I had to tell her that I killed her favorite child! I killed him, Spike! I killed him. . ."

He didn't care for how wet his chest had gotten or how long he was going to have to hold her in one piece, "Val, you didn't kill him. You didn't know what was going to happen."

"I gave him fentanyl as if I didn't know how dangerous it is! Matthew said it would be fine𑁋"

"Well fuck Matthew!" Spike pulled her back by her shoulders causing her to gasp. "Matthew is an asshole and he's the one that gave you the fentanyl and I'm sure he knew just as well how dangerous it is."

Val's blue eyes shimmered from the teachers. Her shoulders lurched upwards as if she was trying to hide away in a shell. He could tell that she hadn't opened up about that story in a long time and he now could see that Val wasn't the girl he thought she was. He knew that there was more to her story, but he wasn't going to force it from her. Instead he allowed her to crawl back into his arms while sobbing away all the tears.

What else could he say to make her feel whole again? He was scared that the words would be wrong and that it would set her off. He was scared that he would ruin what they have again and he wasn't ready to let go of it fully even after her story had been revealed to him. All he could do was rub her back and press a comforting kiss against the temple of her head.

"I swore to be sober for the rest of my life after that night. Even though I hated my mom, I couldn't bear to hear her cry. . ."

He pushed her back once more and placed both of his hands on her face. The pads of his thumbs broke the tears that flowed down her face while she tried to catch her breath. Once he made sure all tears had been wiped away from her face, he still held onto her.

"Hey, why don't you and I go get some food? Just the two of us. And it can be wherever you want," He wasn't used to being so vulnerable but he missed her smile and couldn't stand to see her more broken.

She rubbed her nose, "Can we go get some cold nachos at a roller skating rink?"

As a smile snuck onto her lips, so did one on his. He chuckled and ducked his head down, "Yeah, let's go get some cold nachos."


	9. 𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐎𝐔𝐒

THE RELATIONSHIP THAT WAS ONCE ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION WAS NOW BETTER THAN EVER.

Ever since that afternoon on the ship, Spike and Val started to hang out a lot more. Val found herself going on less supply runs and instead sitting down next to Spike just for a quick chat. When Spike was out on bounties he noticed that there was an urgency to get it done quickly so that he could return home and see her lips spread into her happy smile.

When neither were busy, the two went out on small "dates." That's what Val would call them, but Spike wasn't ready to admit that he also considered them dates. They'd sneak off to watch a movie premiering and if they had no money they would watch from afar. If it was a rerun, they would reenact their favorite scenes together. Unless it was a romantic film.

Other days they would run around the city and find different things to do. They would go window shopping and sometimes even try on things. Sometimes they would just walk and talk about many different things. And of course they would go have their fun at roller skating rinks, Spike was slowly becoming a pro.

Each day he found something new to like about her. The way her eyes would widen before she smiled or how each word rolled off her tongue with such ease. He was glad that they were able to repair what they once shared and even get closer along the way.

Sometimes she took his breath away. How she would turn the corner as they were leaving to hang out some more. How her fingers would gently brush against his hand while walking. He was starting to believe they weren't just accidents. Her laugh would run around in his mind constantly.

But was it right to feel this way about another woman? His heart once belonged to someone else and it still does. It felt wrong wanting more with Val when he already had someone else. But would he ever even meet her again? Would he ever see Julia again?

Spike couldn't just ignore how his heart pulled itself towards Val.

"Spike?" Her voice snapped him away from his thoughts and brought him back to the star covered city that laid on Mars. His brown eyes turned back to her who tilted her head in concern. "You good?"

"Huh?" He blinked a few times to really register where he was. The two of them laid against a blanket on the cold grass staring up at the sky. It was Val's idea. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just got lost in thought."

She shot him a smile before laying back down. Her blonde hair seemed like a soft pillow for her to lay on. It got cold during the night so Val covered herself with a cardigan she was previously wearing. Spike wore his normal suit per usual.

In between them laid a few snacks that they managed to grab from the gas station before heading up on the hill they were on. Most of them were candy to satisfy Val's sweet tooth.

Spike was curious as to why she brought him up here. Most of the time when they hung out it didn't feel as intimate as this. Something about the air tonight made it feel different and he wasn't sure why yet.

"Did you know that the Earth only has one moon?" Val's eyes stayed on the sky. He could see the stars swimming in the sea of her eyes. "It must be pretty lonely." Her finger pointed up at the sky. "But Mars has two moons." That's when he realized that he hasn't even looked at the sky yet, he was so focused on her. "They're like you and me."

He smirked while an eyebrow raised, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Finally Val's beady eyes gave him a glance. She shifted over to her side so that she could stare him directly in the eyes, "I mean that I'm never lonely when you're around. I always feel safe and content." She never once broke eye contact with him but he could tell she was nervous. "I really like you, Spike, and I don't mean as a friend."

Shit.

This is exactly what he needed when he was already confused about his own feelings towards her. He didn't know what his feelings were or if he should act when he was so confused. If he were to not return her feelings then it may look like he had been leading her on this whole time. That's why she brought him out here, to relay her feelings to him and he was only going to disappoint her.

His smirk disappeared into a small frown. Val didn't have to hear his words to know that he was about to reject her and he saw that through the glimmer of sadness that shot through her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Val," The words that fell off his tongue didn't feel right to him. "I like you too, but not in that way."

"It's okay."

She spoke no words for the rest of the time that they laid against that blanket. Val just went back to looking at the sky. He turned his head towards the sky, but his eyes remained on her. She didn't show any kind of wavering emotions, but he knew her mind wasn't focused on how many moons each planet had anymore.

At some point he could've sworn he saw her bottom lip quiver.

⬩ ❖ ⬩

Thirty minutes hadn't even passed when Val decided that she wanted to go back to the ship. Spike complied, not wanting to stir anything else inside her. They cleaned up their mess with Val carrying all the snacks inside her bag along with the blanket.

She said she was tired, but he knew better. Usually on their way back to the ship, they'd be teasing one another and talkings about things they didn't get to talk about before, but tonight she was quiet. Each time he'd try to make a small conversation it quickly died out with Val's sweet but blunt answers.

Not many people were out this time of night. He hadn't realized just how late it really was. Jet was probably already asleep which meant that they would have to sneak in. He always wondered if Jet was jealous of their little adventures and if he tried to cover it up with making jokes about them going on dates.

Suddenly Val stopped walking causing Spike to stop as well. Light from the gas station they stopped at earlier illuminated her slouched figure.

"Do you need something from in there?"

She turned to him and gave a small smile, "I'm going to go pee and maybe some water. Do you need anything?"

He shook his head while digging around in his pockets for his pack of cigarettes, "No, I'm fine. I'll be out here if you need me."

Once Val had run inside, Spike pushed himself against the cement wall with a crumbled cigarette in between his lips. He didn't smoke around Val in fear that it might set something off in her. Usually he didn't care, but he didn't want to watch her cry again.

Lucky for him, he actually had a lighter today. A rare sight for him. As the flame emitted from the lighter, he thought back at her confession. Why did he feel so bad for rejecting her? He shouldn't feel that way. He didn't want to be with her because he felt confused about his own feelings, but did he really or was he just scared. He took a long drag from the stick feeling angry with himself about the whole mess.

The cigarette was halfway down when his brown eyes caught sight of a scrawny man stalking into the gas station. His eyes were dark and he had no happy expression. He flicked his finger against the stick and let the ash fall to the ground while studying him. He was hunched over and balding at the top of his head. He looked like a Disney villain if you asked Spike.

The thing that caught his eye, made his heart race. Something in the guy's hand reflected light back at Spike and he was worried that he was carrying some kind of knife because who the hell carries a mirror at night?

He made it inside before Spike did. He had to be calm about this situation and get to Val before this turned into a whole mess. He stalked slowly inside the building with his long hand resting on top of his gun. From the glass doors he could see that only three people resided inside. The cashier relaxed behind his screen scrolling through his phone with the occasional glance at the TV. Val was in the far back looking at the drinks deciding what kind of water she wanted. This ticked Spike off because they all taste the same and she was taking her sweet time realizing that.

The suspicious man proved Spike's worries correct as he rushed to the back where Val was distracted. Spike immediately rushed inside, but he was too slow.

"Val!" Spike cried out as the man quickly wrapped his arm around her neck making her gasp loudly. His hand reached up revealing the large knife that was stowed away in his hand. He brought it down just as Spike started to run towards them.

Val let out a vicious scream as the knife went right through her skin. Spike almost thought that he hit directly into her heart meaning that it was game over for her. He never knew his heart could beat so fast in a moment like this or that his eyes could get so wide. Time felt slow at that moment.

"You ruined my life!" The man yelled out angrily as he dug the knife deeper, even twisting it causing Val to scream once more. "You bitch!"

Spike finally made it in time just as he retracted the knife and was ready to strike again. He grabbed the side of the guy's head and used all of his built up anger and slammed him into one of the doors holding the drinks. The glass shattered around him as his head was pushed against one of the columns with drinks on top.

Spike drew his gun practically bleeding with anger at this point and was ready to shoot before he saw Val fall forward holding onto her shoulder. He let the guy fall down as his gun was put back into the holster. His arms now being empty, occupied themselves with Val's paling body.

He held her close to him not caring that his shirt was being stained by her blood. He rushed out of the store hoping that the cowering cashier hidden under the counter would call the police.

While running he realized that he luckily didn't get her heart, but instead her stomach. Still being a vital spot he had to hurry over to the emergency room. He didn't know how he mistook her stomach for her heart, he was blinded by pure fear and rage. Fear of losing Val and anger for not being there to protect her.

Her shaking hand pressed itself against her bleeding stomach while her crying face stayed hidden against his torso. He tried to hold her tight while running to give her some kind of reassurance that she'd be alright.

"I'm taking you to the emergency room!" His voice cracked with fear that he was unaware he still had.

She pushed her head off his chest with big fearful eyes, "No! You can't!" Her voice sounded fearful of something else other than just dying. He glared at her and was ready to say more but she beat him to it. "Just take me back to the ship, I have the right supplies for this and I'll walk you through it! We're closer anyway. . ."

"How do you𑁋"

"Just do it, dammit!"

Spike shut his mouth quickly, not wanting to be yelled at any more by a bleeding, emotional Val.

⬩ ❖ ⬩

Everything calmed down once they returned to the ship. He brought her to his room so that she didn't have to bleed all over her room. He rushed back to her room and grabbed all the supplies that she had listed were needed from her bag. He ignored the fact that it was his first time in Val's room.

He didn't need that much help when repairing her wound. He had his fair share of stabs here and there and knew his way around fixing one. He even went as far as to let her pull his hair when he was stitching her up. She took his pillow and groaned into it to make sure they didn't wake Jet up. He would get to know everything in the morning.

He walked her back to her room, and with a small thanks she was gone behind her closed door.

It's been an hour since then. Her scream played on repeat in his head while he stared at the ceiling. The bloody sheets laid beside his bed as he was too distracted to wash them. Why was he so scared of losing Val? Why was she on his mind all the time even while he was away from her?

He couldn't stop thinking about what she might be feeling at that moment. Before her door closed her eyes were dull with zero luster in them. He wasn't able to comfort her let alone protect her from the whole mess. He had hurt her tonight in both a mental aspect and physical and he wasn't able to stop thinking about it.

It was at that moment, when he got off of his bed that he realized he was no longer confused about his feelings anymore. He strided to her room knowing that the fear he had for losing her was all he needed to clear the clouds. He knew that Julia was still out there, but he didn't know where and she was the last thing he was focused on.

Val's door slid open to reveal a tired girl with only her bra and shorts on. She rubbed her puffy eyes as her lips stuck out in a pout, "Spike. . .it's late you should𑁋"

She quickly woke back up as Spike's hand planted themselves on either side of her face. He pulled her forward and forcefully put his lips against hers. All the hair on her arm rose to their full peak as chills ran down her spine. She imagined kissing Spike many times but she could've never imagined him being such a sweet kisser.

He pulled away from her and let his hands fall into his pockets, "Listen, Val, I don't like being vulnerable. This is taking a lot for me to even tell you this, but I lied to you earlier. I really like being around you and you're constantly on my mind to the point of annoyance. I thought you were going to die earlier and I was scared to lose you. I can't imagine my life anymore without you in it. Your hair, your voice, and your laugh and when the smile you do that just makes me really want to kiss you."

Val's lips perfectly curved upwards into the smile that he held close to him, "Like this?"

His mouth moved up into a smile of his own, "Just like that."

Soon his hands were back on her face as their lips pressed together once more. She happily kissed back making the two work together to create the perfect kiss she dreamed of with him. With her hands pulling him into her room and shutting the door behind him, their fate for the night had been sealed.


	10. 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐌𝐄

VAL COULDN'T STOP GIGGLING THE WHOLE NIGHT.

Each time they kissed her smile would break way and separate them. Each time his eyes stared down into her, he would hear a small squeak from her. Spike didn't mind though, in fact he didn't mind at all. He just grinned down at her the whole time.

Though she quickly got quiet once things took a more serious route and their clothes had been discarded onto the floor. She had completely shut her mouth when Spike began to lower himself down in between her legs.

His scary eyes met hers as he breathed against her core, "Oh I'm not doing this for your pleasure, I'm doing it for mine."

After that the only time Val opened her mouth was to moan.

They both tried to stay silent so they didn't wake up Jet, but it was an obstacle. It was the first time that Val had felt so cherished during sex. It was the first time since someone cared about her pleasure. She had to showcase it for him to see. It was also the first time that Spike had sex in a long time so he had forgotten just how good it felt.

Val's bed was also the loudest thing on earth that Spike told her they would do it in his bed next time. That's when she decided that the night would last much longer than just one round.

They decided to stop once the sun was starting to rise and they had finally reached their limit. Both sweaty and dirty, they tumbled on top of each other for a long sleep in each other's arms.

When Spike awoke a few hours later, he wasn't sure what time it was. He knew it was later in the day seeing as how they had a long night. There was one window in her room that hung far above the right side of her wall. It was a small circle that shined bright light down onto the two naked lovers.

The two had somehow lost contact in their sleep. Val was now on the far end of her bed while Spike was on the other end facing the wall. He wanted to reach over and pull her back into his arms, but he also didn't want to wake her.

He wasn't the only one missing the contact though. A few silent minutes went by before he felt Val's warm arms wrap around his torso. Her bare breasts pressed gently against his back causing his back to stiffen. The sheets moved around as she lifted her head up and his head turned so their eyes could lock.

The two of them smiled at the same time with the silence still being left uncut. Spike shuffled around before turning over. His hand slipped in the small dip of her waist while his other arm propped his head up.

His eyes went a little further down as his thumb began to trace the stitches that were left on her from last night's attack.

"How are you feeling?" Spike was unaware of the power his morning voice held over Val at that moment.

"Oh I'm sore all over," She laughed. "My stomach hurts really bad, but I'll be okay."

Spike had almost completely forgotten about the events of last night, what led them to end up in this bed and what led Val's stomach to have stitches. He was sure that she wouldn't be moving on from something so traumatic so easily, but at least he was there to help her along the way.

"What do you think that guy meant𑁋"

She rolled her eyes with a small grunt, "Do we have to talk about this right now?" She rolled herself on top of him. His hands instinctively wrapped around her waist. "He was probably just the local crackhead and he might have mistaken me for another blonde. It's a common hair color you know."

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. A tired smile rolled onto his lips while her cocky smirk appeared, "I'm aware of that, Val. I'm just worried about you that's all. You aren't doing anything that would get you in trouble, are you?"

She suddenly went quiet while her cocky smirk disappeared. Her eyes danced around the room with her hands pushing herself up.

"Val."

She snorted and shook her head, "No! When would I have the time to do that? I'm too busy watching over two men, and one of them is very needy."

Spike scoffed, "I'm not needy."

Her smirk quickly returned as she started to lean down closer to his face, "Is that so?"

He had no time to form a sentence before their lips finally joined for the first time this morning and it certainly wouldn't be the last time today either. The kiss the two shared was not as heated as last night, but the passion was still there and the way his touch burned her skin still remained.

The kiss split as her lips left his in order to kiss around his jaw line and later his neck. Her tongue traced each corner of his neck while leaving small kisses all around. But it didn't end there. Her body moving down his upper body as her blue eyes stared up into him. He only stared in awe while propping himself up on his elbows. She was heading straight for his growing need and it made his heart stop for a moment.

Right as Val was about to reach for it, she stopped moving. Her seductive gaze glazed into something more mellow, "I have to tell you something."

His head rocked back with a loud sigh, "What is it?"

She laughed cutely, "I'll tell you after this."

Spike's head went right up so he could watch the whole thing. Their eyes met again as she had finally gone down far enough to where his cock was able to cast a shadow down onto her face. She smiled up at him as her hand wrapped around the shaft. This caused a quick breath to escape him.

He couldn't take his eyes off of her. Maybe it was the lust speaking, but at that moment he felt addicted to her. The way her hot breath hit his tip just right and how easily he fit into her hand. Nothing could ruin this moment for him.

Except, maybe, someone could.

A small knock hit the door causing the two lovers to jump. Val's head immediately popped back up and turned to the door.

"Hey, Val?" Jet's voice made the two give each other a wide eye stare of fear. "Have you seen Spike? I haven't seen him all morning and he wasn't in his room except I did see his shirt was covered in blood."

Val turned back to Spike and mouthed, "You didn't put away your shirt?"

"I was too busy fucking you!"

"Val?"

She looked back at the door, "I'll be right there!" Then finally back at Spike. "You have to hide."

The two scurried out of her bed and rummaged around for their clothes. In the heap of the mess Val had managed to put her shirt on backwards and Spike almost tripped and fell trying to fit his pants on.

"Wait, Spike, those are my pants!"

He looked down at the pants he currently had on and sighed, "Why are your pants so big?"

"Because I like baggy clothes!"

Once the whole fiasco of the pants was fixed she slid open her closet and shoved him inside before slamming it back closed. She took a deep breath to make it look like she didn't just run around trying to hide the man she was just about to give head to.

She tossed her hair around before pressing the button to open her door. She gave a wide smile to Jet, "Good morning, Jet. What did you say you needed?"

He had a puzzled look on his face as he peered inside her room, "Did I hear someone in here?"

She pressed her lips together, "No I hope not. It's just me."

His eyes lingered on her neck for a few moments while he tried hiding a knowing smirk, "Right...Anyway, I was just wondering if you heard from Spike at all today. It's almost 2 o'clock and the damn boy hasn't shown his face at all today. He wasn't in his room either except for a bloody shirt."

"You know, Jet, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but Spike is in a play."

"Right," Jet swiftly moved by her and entered her room. His dark eyes danced all over the place.

"Yeah, I saw his bloody shirt too and uh..." She saw him stalk towards her closet and deep down she knew it was over. "Well he said it was just a prop...so there's nothing to um...worry about𑁋"

The lie was not enough proof seeing as how Jet had already figured it out. He slid open her closet down and out came an annoyed Spike. Val sighed and hid her face in shame.

"A play? Really, Val? A play?" Spike called out to her making her feel more embarrassed.

"I'm sorry! I'm not good at lying!"

Jet started to laugh at the lover's quarrel causing the two of them to grow red in embarrassment, "I already knew the moment she opened the door. Look at her neck." As if by magic, Spike finally saw the huge love bite that he had left of her neck in last night's affairs. "I'm not stupid you guys, I knew this would happen eventually. I've been in your situation before and𑁋"

"Don't bore us with your old man stories, Jet," Spike grimaced, making Val giggle.

"I'm 36, Spike!" Jet quickly defended himself now making the both of them. He groaned with an eye roll before turning to leave. "Val I need you to fix something for me out in the living room if you don't mind."

She frowned, "Okay. I'll be right there." Once Jet was completely out of the room, she turned her pitiful face over to him while talking small strides his way. Her arms wrapped around his neck so she was able to pull herself up to give him a small kiss. "I'll be back to finish what I started later."

⬩ ❖ ⬩

Val had only been working on a small wiring issue for an hour, before her phone buzzed. She rolled her eyes and put a stop to the music that was blasting in her ears. She slipped her phone out of her pocket and looked to see who the message was from, but what she saw made her face immediately flush red.

_Spike_

_Thinking about you._

Along with the message was an image too explicit for her to be looking at while working, but she couldn't ignore how fast it had made her core ache. She looked around the room to make sure no one could call her out for leaving early. She dropped her tools and ran quickly to Spike's room.

_I'm on my way!_

⬩ ❖ ⬩

Val knew she was in trouble for leaving the wires like the mess that they are, but they wouldn't be going anywhere soon anyway. Besides she was rather busy at the moment and by busy she was getting rammed into on top of her desk.

Her desk shook against the wall while she clung tightly to Spike who had his hips clapping against her's. Her face was buried into his neck so that her moans wouldn't bother the other man in the ship. Pleasurable tears threatened to fall down her face seeing as how his fast pace was what she had been craving since last night.

"Hey..." His breathless voice broke the streak she had with her moans, it was too good to interrupt with simple conversation. "Earlier... what did you want to talk about?"

"Oh!" He wasn't sure if that was another sign that she was having a good time or if she remembered what she wanted to say. "I just wanted to tell you that I'll be leaving the Bebop next month."

Spike's movements came to an abrupt end as her words registered in his mind, "You're what?" He moved back so he could look her in the eyes.

"Spike, I need to get an actual job soon, so I told Jet and we agreed to let me go," Seeing his confused face, she cupped his cheeks and smiled. "I'll still be here on Mars which is mainly where you guys stay so I can visit all the time."

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

"Because I was so caught up in you that I didn't want to spoil the moment, but we can call each other as much as you want and I'll come down a lot too," Still seeing that he was upset she went to say more, but the whole mood was ruined when another interruption came.

"Hey, Spike!"Jet called from down the hall.

"Yeah, Jet?" He didn't take his eyes off of her as he pulled out. 

He sat back on his bed and reached over for his lotion. Seeing that she wasn't needed at that moment, Val turned around and pulled her pants back up along with her underwear. He was obviously going to wait to do anything until she left.

"I just got a call from some lady wanting to request a special bounty from you."

They both turned to the door before Spike asked, "What?"

"I don't know, I'll explain more later, assuming you're busy," He chuckled while walking off, but that's not how the other two felt right now.

Val walked towards his door feeling confused for what she had done. She knew in the beginning that this arrangement was meant to be permanent, but she was running out of money to spend and she would feel bad if she made them suddenly start paying her. She didn't have the right strength to become a bounty hunter so she had to find an actual job.

Just as the door slid open Spike spoke, "We'll talk more when I get back."


	11. 𝐈 𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐋

VAL FELT LIKE SHE RUINED EVERYTHING.

Spike was no longer talking to her at all. He wouldn't even give her a passing glance when they walked by each other in the hallway. He didn't complain about her work being too loud or her music either. He had completely erased her from his life, it felt like.

It didn't start out that way of course. When he got back from his "special" bounty, he came into her room and they talked about her plans to move out next month. She felt like he understood her and that they would go back to their rendezvou, instead he just left. They would talk here and there but each day he would get more and more distant. It caused her to wish that she didn't even let him go on that bounty and that maybe he would still be talking to her.

Then one day she went out on a supply run and she noticed that Spike was following her. He did this a total of five times before he stopped completely. Then two weeks went by and he stopped talking to her entirely.

This made her sad because she thought she really had something this time. She thought she could be safe with him and that she didn't have to worry about another bad relationship and yet she went and ruined it.

Did he find out about. . .

No. . .

Val rose from her bed and stalked over to her closet. She slid open the door and looked down onto the floor. She gently dropped to her knees while reaching for a duffle bag hidden in the back. When she picked up she knew she was fucked. Big time.

She unzipped it in a hurry and started to panic once she saw that it was completely empty. She grabbed her other bags just to make sure she didn't hide her things in them.

Empty. Even the money inside of it was gone.

Her heart was starting to race as she realized her circumstance. She quickly rose from the ground and raced out of her room. She stomped down the hall knowing that Jet wasn't home yet. He decided to go out today on some personal business. Based on the sound of the TV coming from the living room she knew that Spike was home.

"Spike!" Val stepped into the living room and stood in front of the yellow couch. His brown eyes stayed focused on the screen in front of him as if she wasn't even there. "Did you go through my stuff?" Still nothing. He didn't move. He had his legs stretched out onto the table and his arm reached back laying on the couch. Already frustrated, Val felt tears well up in her eyes. Finally she snapped. "Dammit Spike! Talk to me! Did I do something wrong? Just tell me so I can fix it! It's like I'm not even here!"

She tried to wipe the tears that fell so that she could say they were never even there, but they were persistent.

Finally, Spike moved. He brought back his legs and placed them on the floor while leaning his body forward. His eyes met her's causing her to gasp. It was the first time in days that he looked at her and she realized just how unhappy he was with her.

He spoke, "Do you remember how I went to go meet that person the other day for that 'special' bounty?"

She quietly nodded her head, "Yeah, what about it?"

Spike's next words made time stop all together and she felt as though she might faint or throw up. Either way, it wasn't good for her, not at all.

"I met with your mother and you, Valerie, are my bounty."


	12. 𝐈𝐓 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐄𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING : MENTIONS OF ABUSE, DRUG USE, AND ALCOHOL USE.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BOUNTY.

Val took a step back from Spike who was now on his feet. Her eyes lingered with fear as her heart rate increased with each second. Was it possible to have a heart attack at 25? Where she was heading 

"That's not my name," It was a pitiful attempt at a lie but it was the best she could come up with.

Spike had hoped that she was going to remain truthful throughout this whole process of uncovering all that he knows, but he was already disappointed and it had just started. He shook his head trying to hold back his laugh of disbelief. His eyes rolled upwards while his hand went down into his pocket. When his hand was withdrawn he was holding a small picture. Once it was in her line of sight, she knew that she was trapped and fucked.

"So this isn't you?" He flipped the picture around to have it face her and sure enough it was like she was looking in a mirror and on the other side was her high school self. Her heart was in her throat and she felt sick. She hid her face within her hands which answered his question on whether or not Val was Valerie. "Why didn't you tell us that your name is Valerie Edouard?"

Hearing her whole name once again was terrifying. She left that name behind such a long time ago and now it was coming back to bite her right in the ass.

"I don't know, Spike..." Her voice was quietly shaking as she tried her best to hide her breaking persona. So far, it wasn't working out. "I just wanted to leave that name behind when𑁋"

"When you ran away from home," Spike interjected just to show her that he already knew the whole story.

She tried to look at him again, but his intense stare made her look away once more, "How much did my mom tell you?"

"Well all she told me was basically just a repeat of what you told me, but then she said that you stole a bunch of money from her and then ran off to never be seen again until you appeared on the news one day after you were attacked at the gas station."

It was the exact reason Valerie didn't want to go to the hospital that night. Her mother was a doctor and she was scared that someway, somehow she would be caught and be forced to go home. Yet it was all for nothing. She still got caught and was still going to be taken away.

She was starting to panic. The image of her having to go back to a place she escaped from was terrifying. She didn't want to go back to that stupid house and see the exact room she found her brother dead in. She didn't want to see her father's disappointed gaze. And she certainly did not want to return to the constant bickering mother she was stuck with. The nights of yelling back and forth and sobbing in her room were crawling back to her and for what? What had she done to make her karma so bad?

Her bottom lip quivered as she started to shake her head. Her teary, blue eyes pleaded with him as she exclaimed, "Please don't send me back! Just tell her she had the wrong person, I can't go back to that house again!" She had broken down in front of him so many different times before and each time she could see a pang of guilt hidden away inside those quiet brown eyes, but there was nothing this time.

He watched her tears fall with a straight face trying to hide the bubbling anger shifting away inside him, "I didn't want to send you back. I wanted to believe that you weren't the person she was looking for so I snuck into your room one day while you were out to see if I could find anything that would get you out of the clear, but instead I found this..."

She gasped loudly when he extracted a small plastic bag from his other pocket. Inside the bag was a small group of pills huddled together. The exact thing she had come in here to yell at him about for taking.

Valerie thought it was impossible, but her fear started to grow even more, "I promise you, those aren't mine."

"Oh I know," He nodded 'reassuringly.' "I believe these are going to...John? Is that one of your 'clients?' Weren't you supposed to meet up with him today and give these to him? And then I believe tomorrow you're going to give another little baggie to...Abby? Am I right?"

The cage she was in was getting tighter and tighter. The key was nowhere in sight, there wasn't even a lock that she could break.

"I can explain𑁋"

"Please do! I would love to know why a drug dealer is living here!"

This part of her story was always hard to get out. It was her darkest days that she was finally crawling away from. She was just starting to pull herself away from those days, but everything had suddenly turned on her.

After she graduated highschool, Valerie ran away from home. She stole a lot of her parent's money so that she and her boyfriend, Matthew, could live somewhere else on Mars comfortably. This was the time when she was still hooked on drugs even though her brother had just passed. Drugs and alcohol were her main coping mechanism and while she lived with Matthew, she had a habit of doing it mostly everyday.

Matthew was no good man. He painted himself as this angel when in reality he was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. He was just like her mother, just he got physical when he would get mad. She had to endure this for five years. 18 all the way to 24 years old. She was scared to leave him because she had ruined her relationship with her family and he could easily tell the police that she killed her brother. So she stuck with him through it all.

He was a dealer. He was where she got everything that she could get her little hands on. Each time she would try to stop, he would keep pushing her and pushing her to continue with everything and each time she would fall right back into that hole.

One night the two of them were going for each other's head. Valerie could no longer live with the guilt of what happened to her brother and she wanted to go home. Matthew got mad, but she wasn't going to have it this time around.

Just as she was finally getting onto the high ground, a small group of men approached their door and Matthew began to panic. He told her to hide somewhere safe and then went to go meet these men. They were angry telling him that they keep pushing back their due date for him to pay up some missing debts and they were tired of it.

Somehow the fight escalated to a shootout. Valerie stayed hidden in her little spot within the kitchen and made the mistake of looking around the corner. That was when she watched as Matthew fell to the ground, dead.

That's why when she was stuck between a shoot out of Spike and his bounty, she was terrified that she was going to lose Spike, hence the panic attack under the table.

The men then started to go through their house and when they discovered her, she really thought that it was the end for her. Instead they had come to the agreement that she would take on his debt and that they needed for her to sell their 'goods' and give them back all the money in just 1 year.

She spent the first two months trying to be sneaky about it all and had no luck. Not many people on Mars are on the market for drugs, so instead she decided that she would travel around from each planet to get more customers. Then she found the Bebop. She noticed that they would be traveling around so she went inside one day and offered for her to start working on the Bebop for free because she would already be making money from the drug business.

When Valerie finished her story, Spike's head was in his hands. Her eyes were streaming with tears after having to relive everything once again.

Finally, Spike removed his hands only to shoot the ugliest glare she had ever seen. He was practically steaming with anger and she could've sworn she heard him growl. His eyes even seemed a little glossy.

"You used us?" She couldn't tell if that was anger or hurt behind his voice. "Why? Why couldn't you just get a job to pay them back?"

"It was already a set deal! I couldn't go back on it!"

"That's bullshit!" His voice echoed around the empty room. "You could've just gotten a job, or maybe even have stolen more money from your parents to pay it all off! Or hell, you could've turned them into the police!"

Spike started to move closer to her as his voice began to rise. Instinctively, she started to move back.

"I was scared! I didn't know what to do at that moment!"

"Why are you trying to defend yourself right now, Val?" His eyes started to shine a lot more as he kept keeping closer and closer. She had no idea how much this was hurting him. Throwing out someone he had put so much fate in. It sucked. "You used us for months! You abused Jet's hospitality! Do you think we're stupid?"

"No of course not!"

"Stop lying to me, dammit!" Val's back was now pressed against the cold metal wall. Spike's hand smacked hard against the empty space next to her head, causing her to flinch with a loud gasp. "I can't believe you! I thought you were a great person, Val. I lo...I really liked you and now you turned out to be some piece of shit. I'm seriously starting to believe that your accent isn't even real!"

Valerie's eyes stared back at him with a guilty stare telling him that her accent was in fact not real. That's when Spike dropped all the hope he had left with her. He pushed himself away from the wall while she started to cry again. His head fell directly into his hands as he tried calming himself down, but he was already too far gone.

He twisted himself around with his fist pulled close. All the pent up anger that he was storing was balled into that fist. It came out as soon as his fist touched the metal wall with all the force he could muster, leaving a large dent behind.

Valerie cried out as she shot to the floor. Her arms hovered over her trembling body in means to protect herself. Spike was turned away from her still trying to calm his ever growing anger. He couldn't even stand to face her. Was everything that had happened in these last few months all just a lie? Did he let his guard down for no reason? He trusted her, he cared for her, he even slept with her and wanted to be with her when Julia was out there somewhere. And now, everything felt like it didn't exist.

His nails dug into the palms of his hands when he felt a small tug at the bottom of his coat. He looked down into her puffy, scared, crying eyes and wanted to take them away from her. How were they able to still make him feel this way? Why, why, why?

It didn't matter though, not even Valerie's bright smile could save her.

He smacked her hand away so he didn't have to stare into those eyes anymore, "I'm going to send you back to your mom."

"No please! Just let me figure things out on my own!" He hated the way her real voice sounded. Especially when it called out to him in such agony.

"You're lucky I'm not sending you to the police!" His head whipped around to face her one last time. "I want you to go back to your room and pack your shit and then leave before Jet gets back! God, you are so lucky I haven't told him yet and I won't because I know he'll turn you in! Now go get your shit and leave! I don't want to see your face ever again and if I swear if I do, then you're going to be in so much trouble, Val." He took a few breaths to calm himself down. "I'm going to keep the drugs and the money that you took from those people."

Her hands gripped to the ends of his shirt once more as she tried pleading with him one last time, "Spike no you don't understand, they'll kill me! I'm so close, please don't do this!"

He shoved her off of him, "Figure it out yourself! I'm done with you, Val! Just go home. Your mom misses you and I'm sure she'll gladly help you out so she doesn't have to lose another child. Just go. Leave! I don't want you here anymore!"

It was hard, but Spike walked away from her. He turned on his heel and walked straight to the yellow couch stationed in the room. He listened carefully as Valerie got up from the ground and walked back to her room. He waited, and waited just to make sure she was actually leaving. Then her door closed again and the ship's main door followed soon after.

He reached forward and grabbed the remote laying on the table in front of him. He pressed the power button and watched whatever was on the screen mindlessly.

An hour had passed and Jet returned back to the Bebop with the groceries that Spike asked him to get. A few minutes went by and finally he stood in front of the tv looking down at the quiet male. His head was right back in his hand as he tried to rub the headache, Valerie, away.

"Have you seen Val? I can't seem to find her anywhere and she always helps me with the groceries," Jet sounded so bright when he talked about Val. He really did like her company as did Spike, but she went and ruined it. Spike couldn't ruin his fond memories of her like that. He didn't want to do that to him just yet.

"We broke up."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW, IT'S OVER!
> 
> I hope I left enough foreshadowing for this ending to make sense! I also hope you don't hate me for the ending...
> 
> I have more plans for Spike because he deserves a happy ending, I also have plans for stories revolving around MHA and maybe even more Naruto!
> 
> If you liked this story be sure to check out my other stories as well! Those include, a Kakashi fic, Tobirama fic, a Mirio fic, and a bunch of Naruto oneshots!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! <3


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